I apologize to those who came hoping to see snail’s tongues or some other minute wonder of nature, but every now and then I like to be standing up when I click the shutter, rather than lying in a prone position in the forest litter. A wider view is a little easier on the knees, which seem to creak and pop a little more now than they used to.
Sky and Telescope’s Sky Week program told me that I’d be able to see Saturn just above and to the left of the full moon last week and I saw what looked like a very bright star, but all my camera could see was the moon. I was happy to see that it had some yellow in it and had lost the harsh, white coldness of winter. Of course the moon doesn’t change color and was yellow only because I was seeing it through our atmosphere, but I kind of like this color. It feels warmer.
The sun was also playing color games. Last year corn was grown in this field and then last fall the farmer planted a cover crop of some kind. In the late afternoon sunshine it was such an impossible bright green color that I had to stop and get a picture of it. My color blindness cheating software tells me that it is yellow green.
I went to one of my favorite viewing spots in Marlborough, New Hampshire over the weekend to get a picture of Mount Monadnock. I don’t really need any more pictures of the mountain but I can’t seem to stop taking them. When I was about 15 or so I foolishly thought that someday I would have made a list of every wildflower that grew on its flanks. I quickly realized that two lifetimes wouldn’t be enough to compile such a list.
I saw some fuzzy wild ginger leaves (Asarum canadense,) but no blossoms yet.
Once again I found a “late fall polypore” that didn’t know it was mid spring. This is Ischnoderma resinosum, whose common name is literally “Late Fall Polypore.” These are said to fruit on hardwood logs late in the year, but I wonder if temperature and day length isn’t a trigger for them. Days can have the same length and temperature in the spring as they do in fall and these seemed relatively fresh.
I expect trails to be muddy at times but this was ridiculous. Luckily there was plenty of room in a field off to the left so I could go around it.
It has been dry enough here to raise the brush fire danger to high. The water in the giant mud puddle in the previous photo went down so fast that the mud around the edges hadn’t even hardened when I saw it. Unfortunately frogs, counting on April showers that never came, miscalculated and didn’t lay their eggs deep enough to survive the lack of rain. Even nature makes an occasional mistake and in this case the price paid is fewer frogs in the forest, and that means more black flies and mosquitoes.
I stopped at a small pond hoping to see some frogs but all I saw were reflections and pollen.
I saw some colorful turkey tail fungi (Trametes versicolor) but no turkeys.
Sometimes you have to climb a hill to see a mountain and that’s exactly what I had to do to see across the Connecticut River valley to Stratton Mountain in Vermont. On Sunday I climbed the hill known as “High Blue” in Walpole, New Hampshire. Whoever named this hill got it right because the view is always very blue. It has been quite warm so I was surprised to see snow still on the ski trails.
I’m seeing a lot of trailing arbutus (Epigaea repens) flowers now. These are one of the most fragrant flowers in the forest, but since they grow so close to the ground you have to get down on your knees to smell them. While I was down there smelling them I thought I’d get a picture too, so all of you who were betting that I couldn’t get through an entire post without at least one macro shot were right.
The influence of fine scenery, the presence of mountains, appeases our irritations and elevates our friendships. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thanks for coming by.
I agree with Amelia–your posts are always so colorful, and yet you don’t see the full range of color. If this isn’t too much of a personal question, what sort of color blindness do you have? Is it the mild red looking greeny-gray or the more severe type where red actually looks black? Just my geeky biological curiosity at work.
Thanks Sue. No, I don’t mind talking about it at all. I’m not sure what type I have but I think it must be relatively mild. I failed all the tests in grade school, so i’ve known about it for a long time. It isn’t that red looks green, exactly. If you put a red plate on the table in front of me I’d probably say it was red but if you put a red cardinal in a green tree he would completely disappear. I buy blue flowered plants and people say that I must love purple, because all the flowers here are purple. Red and brown blend together as do green and brown, yellow and orange and sometimes orange and red, depending on the shade of orange. Having to be absolutely certain what color an object is happens rarely in life so most color blind people can easily bluff their way through it. I do wonder sometimes what the world would look like if I didn’t have it, but I don’t think it would be too terribly different.
That color of green in the field is amazing; almost fluorescent. Your spring came so quickly!
It did come quickly-all the sudden it warmed up and everything started growing like crazy. The green of that field is a color I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before. I’m going to have to try and find out what’s growing there.
I’ve never seen wild ginger before. Very cool.
It’s pretty rare around here. I know of only one small patch the I found last year.
Really beautiful photos, Allen. Such a great variety. There is something I really like about the shot of the muddy trail, but I can’t pinpoint what it is: somehow it’s very inviting. 🙂
Thank you Melanie. I spent a bit of time exploring around that mud puddle. The woods were so dry that it was surprising to see it there, and it was drying up fast.
Loved the Moon shot. Absolutely beautiful. Also the turkey tail fungus, just like mine. That big puddle bought back so nasty New Forest memories though, walking all day and almost losing my shoe in the mud. Can’t imagine what it must be like not to see the colours properly though. I’ve always found the idea of red and green looking the same rather strange because to me they are opposites. Even so you have a gift for finding a beautiful shot 🙂
Thank you for the kind words. Being color blind is different for each person but one thing I think we all have in common is the sense that when you’re born with it you really don’t notice it much. It’s hard to miss what you’ve never had. The only time it was a real hinderance was when I used to do oil paintings-people would often ask why my sky was more purple than blue.
Ah, I was always fond of a bit of surrealist painting so I’d probably have loved them 🙂
Wish I’d known!
A wonderful informative post accompanied by some excellent photos.
Thank you Sandy. I’m glad that you enjoyed it.
Your colours are so beautiful in this post it is so sad that you cannot fully appreciate them yourself.
I can see how vivid they are but sometimes purple looks like blue and a red Cardinal can disappear in a green tree. I see a beautiful, colorful world-I just can’t tell you exactly what many of the colors are.
That’s not so bad 🙂
Just wanted to say I am so glad to find your blog. Thanks for sharing your beautiful pictures and knowledge!
Thank you, and welcome!
Your landscapes and their inhabitants are so amazing.
They are pretty amazing, but so are the ones that I see on your blog.
We sure know how to have fun!
Beautiful post, Allen…just what I needed this morning with our gray skies and falling snow.
Thanks Scott. I heard that winter was still trying to hang on out there. I hope it isn’t too bad and doesn’t last long. You’ve got to have some spring, I would think.
You’re welcome…and yes, it’s trying to mess with us a bit…but tomorrow and the rest of the week are supposed to be nicer…temps back into the 60s and 70s by the weekend…nice hiking weather while trudging through the snow up into the mountains. 🙂
I was admiring the red buds on the trees in your photo of the green grass and thought that’s why you had taken the photo until I scrolled down to see the grass, then I saw the real reason. Loved the scenery photos, you’re lucky to live in an area where you can see mountains.
We have mountains, lakes, seashore-just about anything a person could want in the way of scenery.
I was admiring the red buds on the trees in the photo of the brilliant green grass and thought that’s was why you took the photo until I scrolled down enough to see the grass, then I saw the real reason. I loved the scenery photos too, New Hampshire is a beautiful state from the photos I’ve seen of it.
To be honest I can’t see any red in that phoro, Jerry. That’s what color blindness does. This really is a beautiful state, but I’ve been seeing it for so long that sometimes I forget just how beautiful it is.
Gotta love “mud season” I was just in Walpole yesterday! I got some great shots of Stratton from the Walpole Winery. There are some amazingly huge star magnolias there in full bloom. Great post and awesome shots!
Thatnks laura. I guess great minds think alike! Walpole is a nice place-I didn’t know there was a winery there though.
Nice moon shot, Allen. The photo of Mount Monadnock I would frame and hang on the wall, along with the reflection of the pond.
I have been seeing that yellow-green color in my pictures, I thought I had a camera setting wrong. My Trailing Arbutus just opened yesterday, as the thermometer said it was 82 degrees!
🙂
Thanks Chris. Wow! It sure warmed up fast there. It’s doing the same thing here-they say we might see 80s next week. Of course, that means everything starts blooming at once! I have so many pictures of Mount Monadnock that I could paper the walls with them and still have some left over. Glad you’re finally seeing some trailing arbutus. Spring wouldn’t be spring without it.
Lovely shots. We enjoyed living in the Keene area for a while and the beauty of the small towns and mountain views. You mentioned Walpole and I thought Burdicks. 🙂
Thank you. Yes-who could think of Walpole without thinking of Burdick’s Chocolates? My boss lives in England and every time he comes here he has to vist Walpole, which has become his favorite U.S. town. He also loves Monadnock enough to have bought a painting of it.
I for one like the longer views and appreciate seeing the hills and scenery that is your part of the world in spring. You take beautifully observed close ups too (the stranded frog eggs are amazing), but I am glad you saved your knees and gave us this tour. I like that blue shot of Stratton with the little houses twinkling below you in the near foreground.
I should try to include scenic views more often. It’s easy to get lost in macro land, but even pictures of beautiful flowers can get boring if that’s all you see. I’ll try to mix it up more often and find some worthy scenery to shoot. We have plenty!
Beautiful shot of the moon and I enjoyed another foray with you into the natural world as it wakes up in the spring.
Thanks Mike!
I especially love the variety in your posts–from beautiful mountain vistas to tiny molds and fungi–you do it all!
Anything I see that has any beauty or interest gets a shutter click!
You know I’ve often seen a fine dusty scum on ponds and pools but never made the connection with pollen. Cue a “Homer moment”: Doh!
That’s funny Jim. I also have those moments.